HEREFORD knows the drill, from the first strains of the pipes to the final, flinch-inducing rifle volleys and fly past.
And on Monday morning it was played out again, under a sun gouged out of a gun-metal grey sky, as Sgt Norman Patterson was buried alongside SAS comrades at the city's St Martin's Church cemetery.
The ritual is one of restraint, customs for the company of men who trust one another in life as in death. Later they would lament another good man gone.
It had been a week since a three-line statement from the Ministry of Defence confirmed the loss of Sgt Patterson. He and Major James Stenner had died when their unmarked 4x4 vehicle crashed in Baghdad.
The deaths were announced under the names of their parent regiments - the Cheshires and the Welsh Guards respectively.
A private funeral service for Major Stenner took place on Saturday.
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